Garuda passengers home after flight fright

DENPASAR: Passengers and crew of a Garuda Indonesia flight which experienced engine trouble in Amsterdam on Saturday arrived on a different plane at Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport on Monday.

Their Boeing 747-400 was forced to make an emergency landing at Schipol Airport on Saturday morning after smoke was spotted coming from one of its four engines shortly after takeoff, reports said.

Garuda sent another plane to transport the 355 passengers and 22 crew members of GA 975 from Amsterdam to Denpasar.

One of the passengers, local art dealer Jais Darga Wijaya, praised Capt. Pilot Wahyudi and crew members for their handling of the emergency.

The plane flew for about two hours because the pilot had to dump most of the plane's fuel before landing.

"The pilot only told us the plane was overloaded," Jais recalled. He praised the crew for managing to avoid panic among passengers.(49/prb)